TWA Flight 840 bombing

Trans World Airlines Flight 840 was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Cairo via New York City, Rome, and Athens. The flight originated in Los Angeles on a Boeing 747 and transferred to a Boeing 727 in Rome for the remainder of the flight. About 20 minutes before landing in Athens, a bomb hidden underneath seat 10F was detonated on the aircraft while it was over Argos, Greece, blasting a hole in the plane's starboard side. Four American passengers, including an eight-month-old infant, were ejected through the hole to their deaths below. Seven others on the aircraft were injured by shrapnel as the cabin suffered a rapid decompression. The remaining 110 passengers survived the incident as pilot Richard "Pete" Petersen made an emergency landing.

Contents

• 1985 twa flight 847 hijacking and 1986 twa flight 840 bombing
• Victims
• References

The bodies of three of the four victims were later recovered from a meadow near Argos; the fourth was found in the sea.

A group calling itself the "Arab Revolutionary Cells" claimed responsibility, saying it was committed in retaliation for American imperialism and clashes with Libya in the Gulf of Sidra the week before. Investigators concluded that the bomb contained one pound of plastic explosive. It is suspected it had been placed under the seat cushion on a previous journey by a Lebanese woman (later arrested, never convicted) who worked for the Abu Nidal Organisation, which was opposed to the peace process.